


How We Came To Be Friends First

by Fighting_for_Creativity



Series: The Groot, Rocket And Tony Show [1]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Accidentally Saving the Day, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Kid Tony Stark, Mad Scientists, Saving Rocket, Space Stone, kid groot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:35:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26111230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fighting_for_Creativity/pseuds/Fighting_for_Creativity
Summary: Despite fully knowing he wasn’t allowed to be in his dad’s lab, Tony couldn’t keep out of there. When he stumbled over a glowing blue cube, he got way more than he bargained for.Meeting a tree and freeing a raccoon is a hell of an adventure after all.
Series: The Groot, Rocket And Tony Show [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1895845
Comments: 4
Kudos: 65
Collections: Tony Stark Flash Bingo





	How We Came To Be Friends First

**Author's Note:**

> For Tony Stark Flash Bingo   
> and all my friends wanting some kid Tony~
> 
> Title: How We Came To Be Friends First  
> Collaborators: Fighting_for_Creativity  
> Card 019  
> Square: Accidentally Saving The Day  
> Ship:gen, Friendship between Rocket, Groot and Tony  
> Rating: Teen and Above  
> Tags: Kid Tony Stark, Kid Groot, Rocket ,Space Stone, AU: different backstory  
> Warning: firefight, shooting, marvel typical violence  
> Summary: Despite fully knowing he wasn’t allowed to be in his dad’s lab, Tony couldn’t keep out of there. When he stumbled over a glowing blue cube, he got way more than he bargained for.
> 
> Meeting a tree and freeing a raccoon is a hell of an adventure after all.
> 
> Word Count: 2846

Tony knew he wasn’t supposed to play in his dad’s workshop. 

Howard had told him that.

Mama had told him that.

Jarvis and Ana and Auntie Peggy had told him that. 

Still, the seven-year-old found himself in the workshop whenever none of the adults were around. Also, if Howard really wanted him to stay out of there, surely he would pick harder passcodes and get better security locks.

_‘Daddy should really reconsider his safety protocols. Getting in here is easier than building a circuit board, and I managed that three years ago!_ ’

The small child wandered around, poking at some tools, looking over some blueprints, and biting his bottom lip hard so he wouldn’t grab a pencil and correct some calculations. By now, the boy knew that his father would get mad at Tony for changing anything, even if he was making it better. Tony wanted to avoid that at all costs.

Therefore, he simply wandered around, trying to find something Howard wouldn’t miss, or at least wouldn’t realize Tony had been using. Soon enough, frustration settled in.

“Doesn’t Dad have anything? He’ll know if I use the scrap metal again.” Pouting, Tony kicked the closest desk leg. The vibration of the kick rattled some of the clutter on top of it, and a small box opened. With wide eyes, Tony looked on in horror as a vibrant blue cube fell from the box and nearly tumbled to the ground, only to stop half over the edge.

Sighing in relief when the cube didn’t fall, Tony made a move towards it. Apparently the child managed to hit the desk again, which resulted in the cube’s fall. 

Without thinking, Tony dived forwards, his small fingers curling securely around the cube. Tony pulled his arms close, bowing protectively over the cube as his forward momentum made him crash into the desk.

Or at least he should have. 

What happened instead was Tony landing face first in the dirt.

“Ouch!”

Tony sat up and looked around, trying to determine where he was while also checking that the cube was still intact.

Relief flooded him at first; the cube was still whole. However, the more the child looked around, the less relieved he felt. The whole place looked like nothing he ever had seen before. 

The dirt he’d landed in glittered in the light. There were plenty of plants and something akin to grass in the direct vicinity, but none of them looked familiar.

‘ _Where am I?_ ’ Tony's thoughts reeled, trying to make sense of the situation, offering solutions, none of which felt right. He thought maybe this could be the result of hitting his head hard enough to get a concussion, but that just didn’t sit right either. 

“My head should still be throbbing if that’s the case. And hallucinating isn’t like this. Maybe the cube is some sort of simulation device Dad’s working on, and it’s strange because it’s not finished yet?”

Tony stood up as he spoke, turning a full 360 degrees as he surveyed his surroundings. Shortly before he got back to where he was originally looking at, he caught some movement in the corner of his eyes. Gripping the cube tighter, Tony slowed down, trying to catch whatever moved while it was in motion.

But whenever Tony thought this time he would catch it, all movement ceased. Frustration built once more and overrode caution. 

“Who are you?” Tony knew it was reckless to let a potential threat know that he knew it was there; he’d been kidnapped enough to know that, but he couldn’t help himself. Instead, he just braced himself for an attack, an ironclad grip on the cube. Because if it came to it, Tony could use the corners as weapons.

Nothing could have prepared the child for what followed, though. Out of the thick bushes in front of him walked a tree. Tony stared slack-jawed, reconsidering the concussion theory before the tree - well, not much more than a sapling, really - waved with its small twig arms.

“Erm-”

“I am Groot?”

That definitely ruled out the possibility of a concussion induced dream. Tony was many things, but he wasn’t strange enough to imagine a talking tree. 

Robots? No problem. 

But plants? Way too Tolkien.

Taking a deep, calming breath the way Jarvis had taught him to when he got scared or upset, Tony smiled shyly and said, “Hello. I’m Tony.”

The tree's crown - which had an actual face, _with eyes and mouth and nostrils_ \- tilted to the side and just repeated, “I am Groot.”

“Yes… you said that already…” Tony squinted as yet another ‘I am Groot’ was said.  
‘ _Maybe that is his language? But only three words? And what about-_ ’

Before Tony could follow that thought through to the end, the tree came closer and poked the cube of all things. A blinding light engulfed the two and the next thing they knew was hard ground under their feet.

Tony landed on his ass a few seconds later, the tree hiding in his shirt of all things. A few moments passed before Tony heard heavy footsteps and hurried into the closest room he could get to.

Which turned out to be a laboratory. It was different to those Tony had seen his dad use or even some of his dad’s friends. This one was all sleek metal and flashing lights, with a high ceiling and some kind of ventilation system, if the soft breeze Tony felt was anything to go by. 

The instruments looked weird, too, like some of those he had seen in comic books, and the consoles were so high that Tony couldn’t even really see what was on them.

Walking curiously but with caution, the child tried to figure out where exactly he was. He rounded a big middle console when a shimmering wall caught his interest. His adventurous and curious nature won out over caution and he walked straight towards it. Tony felt how the tree - ‘ _Groot_ ,’ he reminded himself - poked its head out of the neck of Tony’s shirt. 

Tony, very well aware that he shouldn’t, reached out his free hand and touched the shimmering wall. When he did, he gasped as the shimmering cleared away and the wall turned into a transparent screen. Behind that screen, Tony could see a table with a seemingly unconscious animal strapped to it.

Not liking how that made him feel, and very much not approving of animal experimentation even when some of his dad’s friends did it, Tony searched for a way to get to the animal. 

It didn’t take long for the brunet to locate an electric lock and once more he scoffed at how easy the lock was to pick. ‘ _When I’m a grown-up and have my own lab, I’m going to have the hardest to pick locks in the world._ ’

Opening the door took almost all of Tony’s strength, but he managed it. He hurried to the animal's side, only vaguely registering that it was a raccoon and it had bandages on most of its body.

The straps which held the raccoon in place were strong and a confusing mixture between metal and cloth, not easily undone. Somehow, Groot knew what to do, and managed to help Tony to free the raccoon.

In hindsight, Tony shouldn’t have tried to shake a bandaged raccoon awake.

But, as the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20, and Tony had to scramble away from the furious raccoon attacking him. Groot was once again in his shirt, apparently loving the body heat, _what a strange tree,_ and apparently oblivious to the way Tony just barely dodged another attack by diving behind heavy machinery. 

The raccoon was about to charge again when some men, drawn in by the commotion, entered the room, and everything froze for a moment. 

Tony looked on with wide eyes as the scientists - and Tony was pretty sure they were some form of scientists, given the apparently everywhere standard white lab coats - drew pistol-like weapons and shot at the raccoon.

The animal tried to avoid the shots and only now did Tony realize how badly the small mammal was hurt. He - Tony assumed it was male - swayed more than he actually dodged, barely avoiding whatever the pistols used as ammunition.

Biting his bottom lip, Tony got Groot out from his shirt and put him down. Then he raced towards the scientists and the raccoon. Only as he skidded to a stop in front of the wounded animal did Tony think for a moment that this wasn’t smart, but he still spread his arms and looked with determination towards the scientists.

As far as Tony could tell, the men looked confused, though he couldn’t be sure if it was at his sudden appearance or if it was at there being someone getting in their way. The way they talked amongst themselves didn’t bode well for Tony, nor did the greedy gleam entering their eyes.

Tony checked if the raccoon was still behind him, then, realizing that he was gone, made for a mad dash to avoid the men’s attempts to grab him. The men ran after him, trying to get a grip on his arms, his shoulders, or anywhere they could get their six-fingered hands on.

What was worse, Tony has realized that he had lost the cube somewhere between freeing the animal and the scientists arriving. Even if he could get out of this room, Tony was acutely aware that he couldn’t get away from this place without the cube.

Groot, meanwhile, had found the cube and dragged it towards the raccoon. “I am Groot?” he whispered, hoping that the mammal would understand him. By the twitch of the mammal's ears, he did but opted to ignore his question. 

When Groot looked over his shoulder, he saw his tiny, warm-skinned friend backed into a corner. Turned hastily back towards the mammal, Groot glared angrily at him when Groot saw that the raccoon’s paw was nearly touching the glowing cube. “I am GROOT!” 

Yes, Groot was angry. 

Finally, the raccoon turned its head, looking towards where the human child was backed into a corner and back to the cube before he locked onto the child again and sighed.  
“Fuck. Fine,” he mumbled, wondering if he had finally lost it.

He snuck over to the main console and ripped one of the cables from it, eyed the distance, and flicked a lever to overcharge the cable before swinging it back and using it like a lasso.

Whatever the scientists have done to him over the time he’d been here, the raccoon knew he had acquired way more intelligence than he used to have, and he used that now to get rid of his former torturers.

The electricity was still sizzling and sparking from one man to another when he turned his back to the child and dragged himself back to the cube, which was still strangely calling out to him.

~

Tony blinked for a moment. Finally, his brain caught up with what just happened and he smiled brightly. He went after the raccoon, avoiding the twitching men on the ground.

“Thank you!”

“Yeah, yeah. How do we get outta here?” 

Tony took a moment to comprehend that, after meeting a speaking and walking tree, he had now met a talking raccoon too. He took a deep breath then eyed the cube once more. Uncertaintly he replied, “Maybe with the cube. Here let me…” 

The raccoon eyed him suspiciously as he approached, but let him get closer anyway. Then Groot hid again in Tony’s shirt.

Tentative, Tony reached out for the mammal's paw with one hand. Although the raccoon was still very tense, he touched Tony’s right hand softly, accepting the offer. 

With his left hand, Tony now grabbed the cube. Closing his eyes, he remembered how the cube seemed mostly to work while being moved, so he shook it and wished to be back where he and Groot had met.

There was another blinding light, and then they were exactly back at the place Tony first hit the ground. He still could see his hand print from where he had landed the first time. Tony looked around. Smiling softly at the seemingly peaceful environment, he cooed at Groot, “Come on, buddy, we’re back home for you.”

Groot peeked his head out once more and looked around before sliding towards the ground and burying his roots into it, sighing happily. “I am Groooooot.”

Giggling - though Tony would never admit that was what he was doing - the brunet watched his new friend before he turned towards his other… companion?

The raccoon was eyeing the cube with great interest. Tony didn’t like the gleam in its eyes. Hiding his left hand behind his back, the child cleared his throat like he had seen the adults in his life do to get someone's attention.

It seemed to work on the raccoon too, but before Tony could say anything the raccoon interjected, “What do you want for that cube?”

Jerking back, Tony shook his head. “I can’t give it to you. It belongs to my dad!”

“C’mon, boy, there must be something you want in exchange. Let me heal up and I’ll get you whatever you want.”

“Nope. Sorry. If I somehow managed to get home without the cube, Dad would be furious. Might as well stay here forever if I lose the cube.”

“I am Groot.”

“The tree doesn’t see a problem in keeping you here. So gimme the cube.”

“No!”

“Don’t be such a baby-”

  
“Who’s the baby here? You’re trying to get something that’s not yours!”

“Hey!”

“What?! It’s true-”

  
“I am Groot.” 

The squabbling mammals looked at Groot at the same time and said, “We’re not great friends!”

Groot looked as smug as a tree could while the raccoon and the human exchanged confused looks.

There was silence between them, and then the animal muttered, “Lucky you have a home to return to.”

That hurt. Tony didn’t know the others much, not either of them, but he liked them and it hurt to hear the wistfulness and hurt in the raccoon's voice. Tony tried to think of anything that would make it better, but he couldn’t. So he did the next best thing. “Hey, what’s your name?”

“Don’t have one. But Raccoon I guess.” 

There it was again, suspicion and hurt. Tony wouldn’t let him keep feeling like that, even if he couldn’t stay and get to know his new friends better. So he asked, “What do you like?”

“What do you mean? What I like?”

“Well, my dad names things after other things or people after other people he liked. Like me. I’m named after my great grandfather, at least I think it was my great grandfather.” Tony ended his explanation with a shrug.

The other didn’t answer for a while, seeming to contemplate the options. Even Groot just watched, holding his breath like Tony.

Finally, the raccoon spoke again, “I refuse to be named like a weapon.”

That gave Tony pause. ‘ _He likes weapons? Maybe he likes that they are strong? I like that about weapons too._ ’

“Hm… well you’re fast and you're strong. Like… like a rocket?”

“…” 

The raccoon took a while, tasting the sound of the word and remembering - despite not knowing how he knew it - what a rocket was. It suited him, so he agreed.

“That’ll do. Call me Rocket the Raccoon.”

“I am Groot!”

Tony smiled at his friends, seeing how Rocket already stood straighter and his eyes gleamed with something more than just the wish to survive. 

They chatted some more and Tony started to feel like he understood some of what Groot said. When the light became weaker and his stomach started to grumble, he remembered that he couldn’t stay. Looking at Rocket and Groot, Tony wanted to ask them to come with him.

Once more he worried his bottom lip and took a step forward. It was just his luck that he stumbled and instinctively clutched the cube to his chest. Another blinding light filled his vision, and a half yelled, “Kid-” was the last thing he heard from Rocket.

When Tony came back to himself he was back in his dad’s lab. Confusion written on his face, he turned slowly, hoping that his friends were with him. As he did so, he misstepped and hit his head against the wall. “Ouch.”

Shaking his head, Tony picked up the glowing cube and put it back in the box it came from. After he made sure everything was how he found it before his adventure, he went back to his room. 

He was strangely exhausted and decided to shed his clothes and take a nap. He dreamt of a walking, talking tree and a raccoon named Rocket.

When Jarvis came to fetch him later, Tony thought, _'_ _It_ _was all… a dream?_ ’

Had Tony paid more attention to his former clothes, he might have realized that there was a leaf stuck to his shirt and a tuft of fur from a raccoon on his pants.


End file.
